Monday, December 21, 2009

Men's Fashion and Other Stuff

I'm not someone who is overly interested in fashion or fashion design. I do appreciate dressing nicely and appropriately, but I have no interest in knowing who is wearing what to the Grammy Awards or what designer is incorporating some bazaar new fashion dynamic into his or her seasonal attire. But there are a few trends in current men's fashion that have (regrettably) caught my attention, primarily because they annoy like a bad song stuck in one's head. Here are just a couple (I'm aware there are more).

1) Men who wear tennis shoes with suits.

Is it really necessary to dress yourself in a three-piece suit just so you can destroy the coherence with a pair of Adidas? Who came up with this idea? Is this considered fashionable? Someone obviously thinks this is hip and trendy.

2) Men who wear dress shoes without socks.

Again I ask, is this something that your average man considers appropriate and fashionable? How many men do you know that will dress in formal attire, with dress shoes, and leave out the socks?

The Nutcracker

I was watching the Nutcracker this evening on PBS and I was reminded of the stereotype and stigma attached to men who perform in ballets. Some people believe that it's less than manly for a male to dance ballet for a living, since it is (or was) considered a predominantly female operation. In the Nutcracker (and other ballets) not only are there grown men performing, but also some very young boys. Imagine yourself for a moment the parent of a nine or ten year old boy. Would you allow and encourage your son to take up ballet lessons if he showed interest? Some individuals in this society - mostly fathers - would hear nothing about such things.

That young man looks like a teenager pressed into service as a pallbearer for Great-Aunt Ethel's funeral. Somebody lent him a suit, but his feet are bigger than anyone else's so he had to wear his only pair of black shoes.As for the no-socks look; yuck!!At least nobody is wearing mint green tuxedos anymore, like in my brother's wedding pictures!

I love this post! Hate the tennis shoes and suit...and the no socks. Yuck!

However, being a mom of FOUR boys...I would hope that I would encourage any son of mine who had the love of dance to dance...I happen to LOVE ballet and wish so badly that I had followed in my mom's footsteps and danced on pointe! But I do agree with you that most dads would more than likely not encourage it.